I figured I'd start a new thread, my old thread had a bit of non-tiki stuff creeping in.

So this one will be tiki only. And most likely ceramics only as that's what I'm doing with my free time these days.

Funny I got the ceramics bugs from looking at all the cool mugs and wanting to make some then got somewhat sidetracked into throwing and just all kinds of ideas for other stuff.

But a few weeks ago I got a strong urge to make a mug.

This was my first 'sculpture' piece. I started with a big wad of clay and started carving away. Then I cut him in half, hollowed him out and put him back together. Unfortunately as careful as I was drying slowy he started to split apart at the base.

So I pulled him apart again, rehydrated for a few days, cut the base out (I think the two base chunks of clay had too much pull apart when drying), put him on a slab base, then used sodium silicate in my slip to 'glue' him together (aka 'magic water').

He's been wrapped in plastic and drying for over a week now, and the studio is closed for the holidays so I'm hoping to have him ready to fire at the beginning of Jan.

He's a red stoneware, I'll glaze in clear which should give him a decent granite grey finish with some iron spotting. (probably rub a little stain in for contrast too).